Illustrated Paper Sculpture - Belinda Rodriguez

Belinda Rodriguez is a designer, illustrator, and paper artist living in Los Angeles who is doing wonderfully creative work that combines illustration with paper sculpture. Take a look at two recent series of one of a kind pieces, Inked and Split Personality.

Inked "Chihiro"

For the Inked series, Belinda worked with Strathmore 500 Bristol paper and Canson paper to create three dramatic ladies. The colorful tattoos were done with black ink and watercolor. Each framed art piece measures 12.25 x 15.25 inches.

I was curious to learn more about Belinda and her work so wrote to ask a few questions.

Please tell us about yourself.

I'm a motion designer by day for commercials and branding and I do all my personal work after hours. I'm constantly creating to improve and transform as an artist, it keeps me motivated and happy. I do a lot of illustration as well and it goes hand in hand with my paper sculptures. I first learned and began doing paper art in 2011 and fell completely in love with it. Doing paper art has definitely opened up many doors and I'll definitely continue to create more.

Inked "Sophia"

What are the steps of your design process?

For all my paper sculptures I usually do rough pencil sketches of what the entire sculpture will look like. When I'm happy with the sketch, I'll then do a final tight sketch and begin breaking down what pieces I need to cut out. For the "Inked" tattoo girls, I began with rough sketches of each girl and tattoo. I then did a tight drawing on tracing paper over my rough sketch. Before I cut out the pieces, I used transfer paper to transfer the tattoo design onto each piece. Then I began to cut out the pieces and paint on them.

 

Inked "Mira"

Are you planning to continue with these series? And with paper sculpture in general?

I definitely plan on creating more paper sculptures. Each time I do a series of sculptures, a new idea sparks and encourages me to move on to the next series. After creating these ladies, specifically, the henna tattoo sculpture (Inked "Mira" Paper Sculpture), it gave me the idea to create a sculpture with jewelry. So I think that might be something I create in my next series. My goal is to always evolve as I'm creating my paper art and constantly create new work.

"Split Personality" Series
11.25. x 17.25 (framed)

I'm sure your work is even more remarkable in person. Do you have any upcoming gallery shows?

Not at the moment. I am reaching out to different galleries to display my work. So hopefully in the near future I will be!

See more of Belinda's paper sculpture and illustration via her website and Tumblr.